Blackhawk Vol 1 13
** ** ** ** ** ** ** Antagonists: * ** costumed minions Locations: * The Island of Cliffs, in the Northern Ocean * * * Items: * Z-20 fuel Vehicles: * Blackhawk s * The villains' 2-man plane looks very much like a WWII dive-bomber, only propellorless and with spiky, batlike wings and tail assembly, reminiscent of Airboy's "Birdie." | Writer2_1 = | Penciler2_1 = Bill Ward | Inker2_1 = Bill Ward | StoryTitle2 = The Return of Fear | Synopsis2 = The Blackhawk squadron flies to Kimrouk, at the invitation of Prince Ghor, to receive some honors, but mainly because of a secret message from Fear, the femme fatale that they met during the Nithar affair in Zorania. She now leads a small group of Kimroukian freedom fighters, under the oppression of Prince Ghor's evil new wife, the European adventuress Starra. The squad bunks at the palace while Blackhawk sneaks out and meets Fear in the Black Dove tavern, in a dangerous part of town, subduing two knife-wielding muggers along the way, and is ready to take on the tavernful of thugs when they all turn out to be Fear's hench-patriots. According to Fear, the dim Prince Ghor is completely manipulated by his evil European-expatriate trophy wife Starra, who has been empowered to command the police, levy taxes, and generally rule by whim. Starra's grenade-and-rifle-wielding thug squad raids the inn, but gets wiped out in a close-quarters gunfight, in which Fear shoots at least two enemies dead. Blackhawk captures the leader alive, and finds written evidence of Starra's corruption; he and Fear then sneak back into the palace, where a probably-avoidable gunfight breaks out, between Starra's hand-picked palace guards and Fear; she shoots one of them dead too. Starra's gangsters get the worst of it, and Starra gets captured, but Starra boasts that she'll easily be able to lie her way out of her predicament. Fear believes her, and shoots her dead. Prince Ghor arrives and is confronted with the evidence; he soon believes Fear's version of events. Fear has clearly got it bad for Blackhawk and he's starting to like her a lot better too. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Starra Other Characters: * Prince Ghor Locations: * Vehicles: * Blackhawk s | Writer3_1 = Paul Gustavson | Penciler3_1 = Paul Gustavson | Inker3_1 = Paul Gustavson | StoryTitle3 = Chop Chop: "The King of Hoho" | Synopsis3 = Chop Chop is mistaken for the King of the Tibetan country of Hoho, and comical slapstick antics ensue. | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Chop-Chop Locations: * ** Hoho | Writer5_1 = Jack Cole | Penciler5_1 = Jack Cole | Inker5_1 = Jack Cole | StoryTitle5 = Burp the Twerp: "The Baseball Betting Bandits" | Synopsis5 = Some gambling racketeers posing as FBI agents dupe Burp the Twerp into telling them the one weakness in his incomprehensible array of super powers, and due to their misunderstanding of what he tells them, they blow up themselves and their hideout. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * a gang of gambling racketeers | Writer6_1 = | Penciler6_1 = Bill Ward | Inker6_1 = Bill Ward | StoryTitle6 = Allies of the Crocodile | Synopsis6 = The pleasant land of Otero, which looks like it's in a mountainous part of Latin America somewhere, and is "cut off from the rest of the world," is troubled by a plague of banditry, and the government is unable to get this mess under control. A local man, called "the Crocodile" because of a facial deformity, a self-styled visionary and reformer, mails the Blackhawks a request for help, and they fly to Otero. On the road from the Otero airfield to the Crocodile's town house, his large station wagon is attacked by at least four pistol-wielding mounted bandits; Blackhawk tackles one right out of the saddle, and Olaf shoots one of them; the rest retreat. The tackled one is this robbery team's leader, not named, wearing a fancy brocaded jacket and a sombrero; they seemingly get no useful info out of him (except he stupidly lets it slip out that he's acting on another's orders), and the team turns him over to the elderly (and frankly incompetent) Jefe of Police. The popular president of Otero is also over 70, as is every public official in the place. Blackhawk sends Chuck to throw a metal file into Brocaded Jacket Guy's cell, along with a note encouraging him to escape, which he soon does, enabling the Blackhawks to follow him to his home base, which turns out to be the palatial hacienda of Stebano, a leader of Otero's society. Closely followed by the Crocodile, Blackhawk barges in on Stebano's berating of the escaped bandit, aiming a pistol at the corrupt aristocrat, then turning to roundhouse-punch the bandit. Stebano pulls a gun from a drawer but the Crocodile shoots him dead; the other bandit, brocaded-jacket-guy, flees the room, with the Crocodile shooting and missing him. He flees to Miranda Square, then by taxi to the River District, quietly followed by Hendrickson and Stanislaus, and now by Blackhawk also; this hunt brings them to "The Gaucho," a dumpy bar. Olaf and the Crocodile withdraw to the Crocodile's house. Upstairs in the saloon, Blackhawk overhears the bandit in conversation with Senor Gardo (who seems to be higher up on the bandit pecking order), claiming the late Stebano's position as "Chief Lieutenant under the Outlaw Captain." Senor Gardo is in the middle of putting this punk in his place, and refusing to reveal the Outlaw Captain's identity to him, when Blackhawk barges into this room also. The lesser bandit yanks out a pistol, but Blackhawk disarms him; three of Gardo's pistoleros charge into the room and subdue Blackhawk, taking some lumps in the process. Brocaded Jacket Guy has now been followed to two of his bosses' bases, plus during this last fight was trying to squeal what little he knew; Senor Gardo angrily directs one pistolero to kill this imbecile with a thrown knife. They then prepare to torture Blackhawk to death using the room's fireplace, but Chop Chop drops into the room via the fireplace chimney, and Olaf clambers in via the window, and Gardo tries to flee the room but is caught in the hallway by Stan; reinforcements for both sides show up, but this fight turns into a rout for the bad guys and at the end of it most of them are unconscious and/or in custody. Blackhawk then searches Gardo's ledgers and papers, but finds no indication of the identity of the real leader of this bandit mob. Just then their ally the Crocodile shows up, and Blackhawk accuses him of being the secret chief of the bandits, based on the Crocodile's knowing several things he shouldn't have known. Crocodile tries to quick-draw his way out of this jam but Blackhawk punches him out. The point of calling in the Blackhawks had been for the Crocodile to wipe out all the intermediate stooges that he no longer needed. There's a friendly meeting with the unnamed elderly president of Otero, then the Blackhawks fly away. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Antagonists: * * Senor Stebano * Senor Gardo Locations: * , in Vehicles: * 3 Blackhawk s | Notes = * In "King Murder," Blackhawk is shot down for the thirteenth time , , , , , , , , , , , , and AND is head-konked unconscious, for the fourteenth time. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and * "The Return of Fear" is reprinted in . ** This is Fear's second appearance. The first was in . She will return in , and again in , and once more in . In her first three appearances, she repeatedly breaks the Fourth Wall, to directly address the reader. * Costa Marca, Pangoy, and Marlanx are "allied nations." * Kimrouk is a traditional monarchy, somewhere in northern Africa or the Middle East; Island of Cliffs is in the "Northern Ocean"; and Zorania could be anywhere. | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }}